Amazing Beauty of Day 8 on the Guided Motorcycle Tour of Route Napoleon in France and Switzerland
- MotoTravelDude
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 24
320km (but not for all of us)
France and Switzerland.
The day started fantastically with all the band back together, but that was all to change later on.
We headed out of Yenne, going east and after exiting the long Tunnel du Chat, we were presented with a beautiful vista of Lac du Bourget shimmering below us, the historic spa town of Aix-le-Bains, almost flowing into the lake and the snow topped Alps in the background.
Our route took us south anticlockwise around the lake into Aix, and then we slowly climbed east behind the city. The guys were all wondering why I was taking them on a tour of narrow tracks and roads gradually winding up the hillside until we popped out at the top now looking down at the north end of the lake. The turquoise colour was so intense.
We headed back downhill and were feeling decidedly peckish as it was gone 11 o’clock. A boulangerie was located and sufficed for our elevenses.
We continued going North North East climbing into the Jura mountains. This is a gentle wooded part of the Alps but only peaking at around 1200m. But the road was enjoyable, with a ski station at the top complete with open boutique shops even though there was no snow. We were following a group of five French riders thinking they were out for a play but they weren’t. Once they got out of our way, we could open it up again.
All of a sudden, we were at the French Swiss border. Whilst free from movement is a thing in Europe, it was interesting seeing the old HALT and DOUANE signs, next to the semi-abandoned guard boxes. The road surface changed, as did the fuel prices and the speed limits. We are all very conscious of how strict they are about driving rules in Switzerland.
The temperature was climbing. It was over 30°C and they going slow because of the restrictive speed limits. At L’Abbaye, we pulled into a hotel bar restaurant for lunch that had a classic old Mercedes parked up and a 007 painted Citroen 2CV. Looked like budget Bond and Blofeld were both in town.
The restaurant was closed, so we continued up the hill to a snack bar that Google had suggested. After some car park antics (and a slow dropped bike), we were properly all hot and bothered. Unfortunately, the snack bar was only serving fondue today. The smell was incredible but not that pleasant in the heat so we all decided to give it a miss and continued North and back into France.
Interestingly, at this border crossing the Swiss were holding up all the traffic and some controls were in place.
We stopped later than planned at our lunch café bakery, but we’re too late for sandwiches so pastry and coffee sufficed.
Dan had mentioned on the way up that the clutch on his BMW 750GS was slipping every now then around 4000rpm. This was causing a problem as on the uphills or overtaking , he would lose power unexpectedly.
We located the BMW motorbike garage in Trier (Germany), as it’s near Vianden where we will be by the weekend and I recall it being next door to the Triumph garage who did an urgent brake repair for me previously. They didn’t have space but referred us to another garage.
We managed to get hold of this other garage south of Trier, and sent them all the details by email, hoping the could get a new clutch as quickly as possible.
But the bike was still running, so we continued. Within half an hour, he was really struggling to keep up with us as he kept on losing power.
A layby was found, and we got back on the phone to all the garages. The BMW dealership Mulhouse seemed promising and he was saying open till 7 pm. If Dan left now and went on the motorway, he’d be able to get there in time.
And so our band of five was four again. The four of us continued to Col du Rangers (Switzerland) whilst Dan powered up through France to Mulhouse.
We entered the Doubs Valley. Very picturesque and very Swiss. The cows have bells on them. The route had us hopping over the French Swiss border several times and we ended up on a single track border patrol road, with the actual border just several yards away from us. It looked a little bit like the hillside where Steve McQueen famously tried to motorbike jump into Switzerland in The Great Escape (but wrong country).
We were tearing down the single track lane, when we were confronted with a huge combine harvester in our way. He wasn’t in a hurry to slow down, so the four of us skipped through the adjacent grassy field to avoid being harvested.
We are staying in a traditional Swiss lodging in La Caquerelle, in the low mountainous region of the Doubs river.
Then we heard that Dan had full broken down on the motorway. It was his turn to await the RAC! After a two hour wait, he has been recovered and luckily taken north to Mulhouse, they have assured him that they will take him to the garage first thing in the morning.
Meanwhile, the four of us had a fantastic dinner of traditional Swiss pork cuts with a delicious a mushroom sauce.
We shall await news on our fallen comrade. Meanwhile, what an adventure!
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